Downlink and uplink multiple access schemes for the E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) air interface are currently being studied in 3GPP (which is a standard based collaboration looking at the future evolution of third generation mobile telecommunication systems). Under the E-UTRA system, a base station which communicates with a number of user devices allocates the total amount of time/frequency resource (depending on bandwidth) among as many simultaneous users as possible, in order to enable efficient and fast link adaptation and to attain maximum multi-user diversity gain. The resource allocated to each user device is based on the instantaneous channel conditions between the user device and the base station and is informed through a control channel monitored by the user device. Details of E-UTRA are well-known to those skilled in the art and can be found in many publications.